Book Review - Voices of the Faithful Book 2, Compiled by Kim P. Davis

I've started reviewing books for Thomas Nelson Publishing, as part of their blogger book review program. What follows is my first review.

Voices of the Faithful, Book 2 is a daily devotional reading, a compilation of short testimonies written by missionaries currently serving around the world. Each day begins with a Scripture verse, includes a few paragraphs written by a missionary that keeps with the month's theme ("Prayer, the Priority," and "Making Him Known" for example), and ends with a prayer.

I have to say, though I loved the idea for this book, I didn't care for the execution. My main complaint was that, because each missionary had such a limited space in which to tell his story, it was sometimes hard to follow what was going on. And it was definitely hard to be invested in it. Sometimes huge chunks of information was left out for the sake of brevity. I understand the need for brevity sometimes, but I feel that this book was trying to say too much too fast.

On the positive side, there are some gems in there. My favorite story, called The Unburned Bible, is nearly worth the whole book right there. I could see using this book as a family read-aloud (good conversations would be had!), but again, there would be some glaring gaps in the stories. The most encouraging thing about the book is that the reader is hearing the voices of 365 different missionaries, a fact that showcases God's glory in its numbers. Although I didn't care for this book, Book 1 was a bestseller, so maybe it's just me!